Say we did drop Redmond, say we put Ward-Prowse and MoEl out wide for the next half of the season or recall Sims. Neither gets a goal or an assist. Any different in the final analysis?
Agreed. But he'd still be a better option than a make shift CB - eg Xhaka. And besides, if we start Austin, then as a CB you really don't need to be match fit to deal with Charlie.
City should have been 4 up at half time. Southampton lucky to be in it. Can’t recall our keeper having a save to make.
Glad you are annoyed, get a reality grip City were well worth their win; you possibly didn’t see the first half when your keeper and some last ditch defending kept it goalless. Unsure what your asterixes stand for but perhaps you should look i the mirror.
You need to take your blue tinted glasses of sunshine..........a ST holder friend of mine who was there yesterday said his honest opinion it should have been a draw.
We’re 5 points off of Cardiff in 14th right now, even after our horrendous average points per game. But, Cardiff in 14th(!) have a ppg below 1 almost halfway through the season. If we treat our current ppg as what we will stick to until Ralph turns us around, then we have to treat the other dross in the league as not likely to improve significantly as well. Allowing for one or two to drag themselves to relative safety. Therefore at the moment 5/6 teams are likely to finish at or under 38 points. As long as we stay within touching distance of those around us (through everyone continuing to be dreadful) then we will always have a chance. Picking up a few wins can drag you from the brink to mid table mediocrity. It’s what we saw all throughout last season, we were just clear of relegation and just behind mid table, all we needed all season were a few wins which didn’t come, and we somehow got over the line in the end.
You’re probably not far off the mark as things stand now, today. But if Ralph can find a way of getting the players most likely to offer the opposition golden opportunities to think and act together as a unit and bolt the door, so to speak, and the window offers up a couple of high class, ie PL players, then there is a way out of this mess. A repeat on an even more stressful level than last year is well underway.
Mate, I wrote that when I had just got on the coach. I was cold, wet and pissed off. So, yes I had a perfect view of your chances thanks as it happened right in front of me. It was a dire game and a draw would have been fair. But our CB cocked up, you scored and the rest is history. You weren't good. But we were worse.
The line for safety has been going up, and it'll continue to go up; right now there are two teams on pace to survive with 29 points, and that simply isn't going to happen. We went through this last year, when the bar looked abnormally low until the final couple months, when a few stray results boosted it into a normal range. The same will happen here...we have to expect that it will take 36 points to see safety, and be pleasantly surprised if it's a mere 34 or 35.
Hopefully. But I think that people are underestimating how much we've already slipped; four matches ago, we were a point off of 14th, with three teams below us. We're now five points off of 14th, and with just one team below us, and every team from 13th and above is a distant memory. "Currently safe" has turned into "possibly one result from safety", which by next weekend could be "just two results from safety". Over the past five matches, every team around us has gained ground...Cardiff has gained 7 points on us, Newcastle is +5, Palace/Hudds/Burnley/Fulham are all +2. That can't go on much longer.
I keep telling myself that he must have done something well to persuade us to pay what we did for him. Hope it shows soon
I think you're underestimating how **** the bottom 7 teams of the PL are. Cardiff will be relegated IMO. They've got a few wins recently mainly due to luck. Brighton were playing with 10 men for over half the game, we gifted them the goal that won the game yesterday. Their squad is easily the worst in the PL and I think it will show come May. Huddersfield aren't too much better and Fulham ship goals for fun. Low 30's could well be enough to stay up.
Our problem is exactly what I said on page 1, post 4 of this very thread. We need to have a fake birthday for me next week as we only ever seem to win on my birthday. So, on Saturday it is my Birthday. I will be 49 years, 3 months and 16 days. Happy Birthday to me (BTW that means it is 3 months and 16 days since our last league win...though it feel like we should add the 49 years in there)